Canadian Railroads > VIA Rails Train Status Reporting

Quick question on VIA Rail's train status page.  The Transitdocs web site currently shows No. 1 in Manitoba as over 20 hours late. In fairness, 12 of that was lost before ever leaving Toronto. That said, the forecast on the VIA Rail status page which opens if you click on the train number estimates Vancouver arrival to be only 2.5 hours late. How can that possibly be?  Sure there is recovery time in the schedule. But certainly not that much. And with all the congestion making this timekeeping the rule rather than the exception, why doesn't VIA  provide a more realistic forecast? 

Oh I can't wait to hear how badly you were treated by VIA Rail on your upcoming trip.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Quick question on VIA Rail's train status page. 
> The Transitdocs web site currently shows No. 1 in
> Manitoba as over 20 hours late. In fairness, 12 of
> that was lost before ever leaving Toronto. That
> said, the forecast on the VIA Rail status page
> which opens if you click on the train number
> estimates Vancouver arrival to be only 2.5 hours
> late. How can that possibly be?  Sure there is
> recovery time in the schedule. But certainly not
> that much. And with all the congestion making this
> timekeeping the rule rather than the exception,
> why doesn't VIA  provide a more realistic
> forecast? 

You ask ask a very important question and one that nobody seems willing to consider answering.  If it takes Train No. 1 X amount of time to travel from Toronto to Vancouver, including the scheduled stops, if the train starts out 12 hours late and then becomes an additional 8 hours late—NOT EVEN AT THE HALF WAY POINT OF THE TRIP—even if most stops are deleted, which, of course, is difficult, if not impossible to do, considering the need for fuel stops, crew changes, etc. there is ONLY ONE WAY those 20 hours can be shrunk down to 2.5, but NOBODY is willing to give the answer.  Oh no, they would NEVER DO THAT!  Yeah, right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/19 21:32 by Streamliner.

The predictions on Transitdocs are way too optimistic. The only parts of the route which have serious make-up time (other than major station stops such as Winnipeg and Jasper)  are at the ends: between Abbotsford and Vancouver and between Capreol and Toronto.

thatguyonthetrain Wrote:
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... 
> Tsimobile only estimates the next two stops, and it's tied
> in to the GPS train tracking.
>
> ...

For the Canadian the estimates for only the next two stops are shown, but for corridor trains and the Ocean all stops are shown. Of course, it has the disadvantage of not showing times for previous stops. Transitdocs is needed for that.  Tsimobile is, however, right up to date - well, within one minute. It can be a long time before Transitdocs shows the latest information.

The Canadian arrived in Toronto at 15:30, a mere hour and a half late. Number 2 did well since yesterday evening, having left Armstrong eight hours late. It left Capreol this morning almost four hours late.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/19 12:46 by DrawingroomA.